ST. GEORGE — Utah Valley scored a pair of goals in each half and the Wolverine defense picked up its seventh shutout of the season in a 4-0 road win over Dixie State on Saturday afternoon in the Old Hammer Rivalry game at Trailblazer Stadium.

“We’re super proud of the team,” said Utah Valley associate head coach Kyle Christensen. “It was nice to bounce back after a tough road trip last week. The attitude of our players was great, and we got a result that we needed away from home. Now we get to put in the work and get ready for two big games at home this coming week.”

Utah Valley (8-5-2, 3-1-2) got an early goal in the 10th minute as Amber Tripp stole the ball near midfield and sent a led a streaking Heather Stainbrook with a pass down the left side of the field. Stainbrook then sent a ball from 10 yards out past the Dixie State keeper and into the back of the net to give the Wolverines an early 1-0 lead. The goal is the seventh of the season for Stainbrook.

Stainbrook sent a ball into the box with her left foot from 25 yards out to Julianna Carter who got past the keeper and then a defender before firing it into the net in the 27th minute to give Utah Valley a 2-0 advantage.

The Wolverines extended their lead to a 3-0 advantage in the 65th minute after Sadie Brockbank sent a ball over to Tripp from the right side of the field. Tripp then blasted a shot from about 15 yards out towards the far post and into the back of the net to give the Wolverines a 3-0 lead.

Breanna DeWaal gathered a ball and sent it down the right side of the field to Breanna Eves in the 79th minute. Eves then passed into the box to Brockbank who then scored her seventh goal of the season to give UVU a 4-0 advantage.

The Utah Valley defense picks up its sixth shutout of the season and its fifth shutout victory of the year. Brooklyn Nielsen gets her eighth win in the box and seventh shutout of the season. Nielsen recorded one save in 81 minutes of action.

Utah Valley outshot Dixie State 20-5, including a 10-1 advantage on frame. Brockbank led UVU with five shots, including three on goal. Carter had four shots with three on frame, while DeWaal and Tripp each had three shots.

Utah Valley returns to Orem to host Seattle U on Thursday and California Baptist on Saturday. Thursday’s game against the Redhawks will kickoff at 6 p.m., while Saturday’s senior day game against CBU will begin at 1 p.m. Both matches will be streamed live on ESPN+.

Tanuvasa leads Wolverines volleyball past Dixie State

Kazna Tanuvasa led Utah Valley to a dominant sweep of WAC foe, Dixie State, 3-0 (25-15, 25-18, 25-21) at Lockhart Arena to pick up the Wolverines fifth-straight conference win. With the win, UVU improve to 10-8 on the season, including 5-2 in WAC play. The Trailblazers fall to 4-11 on the year and 3-4 in conference play. Utah Valley also moves to 5-0 all-time in the Old Hammer rivalry against DSU.

After a back-and-forth start to the opening set, Tanuvasa led a 10-5 run to push the Wolverine lead out to 15-9. After Dixie State scored a point, Tanuvasa sparked a 4-0 run to give UVU control of the set, 19-10. Utah Valley was able to coast from there, taking the first set, 25-15, to go up, 1-0.

DSU opened up an early 4-2 lead in the second set, but the trio of Tanuvasa, Kendra Nock, and Kalea Kennedy led UVU on a 14-3 surge to retake the lead, 16-7. Both teams went back and forth until a 7-2 run by the Trailblazers cut the lead to 22-18. Utah Valley responded by scoring the final three points of the set, giving the Wolverines the set win, 25-18, and putting UVU up, 2-0.

Both teams went back and forth until UVU used a 3-1 run to go up 9-7. The Trailblazers made a push, using a 7-1 run to retake the lead 14-10. Back-to-back blocks by Kennedy and Makayla Pollard sparked and 8-1 counter by the Wolverines, giving UVU an 18-15 advantage. After DSU trimmed the lead down to one point, Utah Valley used a 5-1 run to put the set out of reach before Kristen Bell hit home the final kill. UVU took the final set, 25-21, completing the 3-0 sweep.

Tanuvasa led the Wolverines with 14 kills, on .481 hitting, to go along with six digs and a pair of aces. Kennedy added seven kills and a career-high four blocks while Bell chipped in nine kills and seven digs. Abbie Miller had another double-double, lead UVU with 18 assists and 11 digs while Natalie Palmer finished with 11 assists to go along with seven digs. Bryton Bishop finished with 11 digs and tied a career high with nine assists.

The Wolverines hit the road UVU heads to Phoenix, Ariz. for a pair of neutral-site matches with WAC-newcomers Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston. Utah Valley faces SFA on Friday, Oct. 22 at 4:00 p.m. MT before taking on the Bearkats on Saturday, Oct. 23 at 3:00 p.m. MT. UVU then returns home for its final regular-season matchup with Chicago State in Lockhart Arena on Saturday, Oct. 30, at 12:00 p.m. MT.

Men’s soccer takes care of UNLV

Four different players scored as Utah Valley University notched a convincing 4-1 win over UNLV on Saturday night at Clyde Field in WAC men’s soccer.

Sterling Penniston-John and Evans Armah both scored in the opening 45 minutes, and Jojea Kwizera and James Peña scored second-half goals for the Wolverines (6-3-2, 3-2-0).

“Our biggest thing today was to just find a way to win. (Last week) we still had chances to win… we just didn’t score and were putting too much pressure on ourselves,” said UVU head coach Kyle Beckerman. “We just told the guys to get back to what we do and work hard. Our press ultimately gives us the attacking chances to dictate the game. So all-in-all it was a good night and we’ll take it.”

In the 23rd minute, a free kick off the foot of Alejandro Silva curled toward the middle of the box, where Penniston-John got his head on it from about 15 yards out and scored off the left post and in. It was the senior defender’s first goal of the season and second of his career at UVU.

Armah made it 2-0 in the 30th minute when he back-heeled a pass from Aaron Nixon in front of the keeper and into the corner. A corner kick from Silva was laid off for Kwizera and his cross was re-directed by Nixon towards Armah, who scored his fourth goal of the season and gave the Wolverines a 2-0 lead.

The score was still 2-0 just over 15 minutes into the second half when Utah Valley goalkeeper Joseph Wheelwright notched a sliding kick save to keep UNLV off the board. Wheelwright finished with four saves on the night.

Kwizera extended it to a 3-nil advantage in the 64th minute. Cameron Weston delivered a deep pass from the far side of the field to Kwizera, who scored with his left foot from 16 yards out into the left corner.

The Rebels (6-6-0, 2-3-0) spoiled a clean sheet in the 79th minute, scoring on a direct kick with a header from Aedon Kyra — his sixth goal of the season — on assists from Bailey Letherman and Marco Gonzalez.

Peña put any hope of a late comeback out of reach in the 87th minute when he chipped a shot over the keeper right at the top of the box for the 4-1 lead. Carter Johnson intercepted a pass and directed it to Diego Castillo, who postmarked a perfect ball to Peña for the dagger and his first goal as a Wolverine. Three of the four goals UVU scored came from seniors.

Utah Valley was on target for seven of the 11 shots attempted, a much-improved percentage over the first two games of the three-game homestand. The 63.6% on goal success was the team’s second highest percentage on frame this season. UNLV finished with 12 shots, five on goal.

The Wolverines hit the road next week for games at Chicago State (Oct. 22 at 6 p.m.) and at Houston Baptist (Oct. 24 at noon).

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